Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman, I would like to congratulate the members of the committee that went around and obtained this information. It really gives us a reflection of what we are facing out there. I think it is up to us as Legislators to ensure the recommendations have come forth are carried out and we change the way we do things.
I believe they are right when they say the money is adequate to a point, especially regarding the amount of money we spend in the area of Health and Social Services. I believe the problem is the avenue we use to deliver health care in the North. This has to change. We have to find new ways of consolidating the different boards and agencies we have, while at the same time realizing we represent some 40,000 people in the Western Territory in which, with division, we have a smaller area to control, oversee and deliver healthcare and social services.
One area where we are seriously weak is in the provision of community service. We have taken a stroll up the mountain in where we were talking about moving health and services decision making bodies closer to the communities. What has happened is we have moved it into the regions, but we have not continued that journey to its goal, which is in the communities.
My riding has tabled petitions in this House asking for a public inquiry into the delivery of health and social services in my riding, because the regional health board was broken up from the original process of having communities represented to having aboriginal representation and representation of municipalities. Due to that, the communities feel they lost their voice at the table. I think we have to revamp the whole system, realizing we have limited resources. We have to ensure we do it in a way that we hear what the communities are saying. We have to streamline the level of bureaucracy we have now. We spend a lot of money on duplicate services within the Department of Health, where we have regional boards with regional specialists. Most boards have their own mental health officer, alcohol and drug specialist, and somebody in charge of home care and other projects. We have to somehow start sharing our services between the different boards, realizing there is a cost-saving measure there.
We hear a lot about alcohol and drugs. I had motions passed in this House about the Tl'oondih Healing Program. The Minister says we realize we have a major problem with substance abuse, alcohol and drugs, and violence. We have to realize we cannot just heal an individual, send him home and say; "you are going to be okay. I do not worry about you. We will not see you again." Unless you deal with the problem at its source, and deal with the problems in our communities, you can send all the people in the world to all the treatment centres, but they will end up back where the problems come from.
In order to deal with these problems, we have to find solutions which are made in the communities, by the communities and carried out by the communities. In order to do that, we have to have the resources and infrastructure in the communities. The Tl'oondih Healing Program was exactly what the Minister stated. We needed something that was developed by the community for the community to look at problems, not in light of individuals, but in light of the family as a whole.
Even if one member of the family has a problem, every member in the family is affected. Unless you deal with the family as a whole, you cannot just mend or help one individual. They are going to go back into the household where the other members have not had the opportunity to be dealt with. I think we have to seriously consider that as one of the possibilities of dealing with these healing programs dealing with the family as a whole.
The other area basically identified was the lack of funding in the area of alcohol and drug addictions. I have seen the downfall of the alcohol and drug programs in the North. We used to have programs in the Delta. You had Tl'oondih, Delta House, and programs out of Hay River. In Yellowknife, you had the Northern Addictions Program. Those programs have come to a point where they have collapsed because of the demand, but also because of the inadequacy of funding for those programs to do the job they were supposed to do.
I feel we have to find new ways of finding revenues to ensure we have programs to deal with the problems at the community and regional level. If we continue to send people south, we are just back to where we were a number of years ago.
We have to start pooling resources between the different organizations, regardless if it is a health board, education board, or the community infrastructure. We have education councils, yet the communities say there is nothing really in place to deal with the health problems because you do not have community health boards.
I believe there should be a consolidation of all of these boards into one board that oversees health, education, and social services, so we cut down on the bureaucracy but also find ways these boards all work together for the betterment of the people at a lesser cost to this government.
The other area I feel we have to put more emphasis on is health care. The whole area of medical care in our communities has a lot to do with the social and economic well being of people in our communities. We know what the problems are, but if a person does not have the educational background, does not have an economic base such as a job, all you are doing is dealing with one problem after another. The problems keep piling on top of each other to a point where it is just uncontrollable.
I think in order to deal with the health and social problems of this government, we also have to have an economic base established in our communities so those people who do want to take the road of being healthy, have an outlook on life where they can see a future for themselves. They can see themselves with a job and the ability to put food on the table for their families so they are not socially dependent on this government.
With that, I would like to touch on another issue, elders' care in our communities. One thing this government has to realize is that we have an elderly population where we are dealing with the baby boomers. We will have a major increase in the cost of care for our elders. How do communities deal with the health problem of our elders, ensuring they have a quality of life they feel comfortable with and dealing with this at the community level?
Last but not least is the area of the environmental health problems. In the report, I see that they did touch on the water problem in Fort McPherson. I feel it is a health problem. It is not just a municipal public infrastructure problem. It is a health problem. You are dealing with a chemical component which, once mixed with chlorine, activates to a point where you cannot just run it into Brita filters and, at the end of the day say your problem is solved. It is not. I feel this government has to do more to ensure the environmental health of our communities is looked at, not just what is happening in Fort McPherson, but in other communities as well. Because of the infrastructure we have in our communities, this can happen anywhere. I would like to note I am thankful for the report and I look forward to the Minister's responses. Thank you.